published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Thesis. 1976. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Rotch. / Bibliography: leaf 38. / by David R. Mayner. / M.Arch.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Colonial stronghold, gateway to the west, forge and hearth for the industrial growth of the United States, the City of Pittsburgh, like few others, lays strong claim to prominence in all eras of the nation's development. The thesis is a design proposal for a museum facility in which to exhibit a collection of artifacts and documents of that particular heritage, a place in which the city's people and visitors will be informed of the roles Pittsburgh has played in the history of the country. The objective is to create a center which not only provides a home for research and display, but which also communicates the public nature of its offerings. It is, therefore, a proposal to study the manner in which architecture both specifically and emblematically contributes to cultural and historical understanding. It is my thesis that with care, a building can be designed which both in form and content creates an environment organizing perceptions of history. The intent lies in a means of defining the potential for architecture to strengthen memories of particular civic interest. / by August G. Schaefer. / M.Arch.

Thesis. 1976. M.Arch.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Rotch. / Bibliography: leaves 74-84. / by Rosalia E. Ennis. / M.Arch.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

The Calgary stroet-levcl Arcade preceded the Mall as a place of public exchange: During the first half of its history the covered arcade acted as a buffer between the public street and private interior. The arcade extended me.vitality of the city street to the pedestrian. It was shelter from bad weather and vehicles, and a window into another world of consumable items. A shopper could peruse the 'just out of reach' at the Hudson's Bay or wait for a street car under the measured punctuation of the covered arcade. The public nature of the arcade reconciled.the individual to the group. It mediated the transition from the busy street'.to the beckoning shop window. Today merchandising strategies promise to develop a more efficient circle between shopper and commodity. Mall spaces are connected above ground with a maze of raised public walkways. Crisscrossing the original grid of streets at a height of 4.5 meters is the raised "Plus 15 System." Over the last twenty-five years, Calgary has extended one of the largest semi-private systems in the world through it's downtown core. This system replaces the public street with an interior analogy that is neither public nor private. Ground level street-life suffers a slow but definite decline and is not replaced. As the city experiences a period of extreme growth the opportunity arises to remedy the decline of the public realm In the process of development and gentrification a temporary set of urban artifacts becomes visible. The building crane, the site trailer, construction hoarding - this language of urban expansion is as tenable as the "architecture'' of the city itself. This thesis project will invigorate boomtown city growth with a new public architecture. The site is the back lane between 8th and 9th Avenues and Centre and 1st Street in the heart of downtown Calgary. This is one of many blocks yet to complete the Plus 15 labyrinth of public access-ways. Mid-block pedestrian bridges connect the south and east sides of the site with the rest of the city's Plus 15 system. Low-level heritage buildings and Stephen Avenue pedestrian mall wall the north side of the site while the giant Pan Canadian Building dominates the south. Running through the Pan Canadian Building is an existing public right of way. Using current development as a spring board this project will suture the internal world of the Plus 15 to adjacent public and private fragments of the city. A steel "Frame" will accompany the current developer scheme for a hotel high-rise on the site. This frame reconciles the horizontal dimension of the original property width of Stephen Avenue Mall and the new vertical layering of the "floorplate skyscraper." Inserted into this ordered web is a temporary housing system of pre-built trailer boxes - - an appropriation of the familiar objects of construction: The ATCO trailer, construction hoarding and a "take-apart" kit of frame components provide a fertile base for the growth of the public "tube". They furnish a temporary architecture while the new public walkway asserts its presence.